Classification of Prints

By using materials can be divided into: woodblock prints, lithographs, copper prints, zinc prints, porcelain prints, paper prints, screen prints, paper prints, plaster prints, etc.

By color can be divided into: black-and-white prints, monochrome prints, overlay prints, etc.

By production method: intaglio, letterpress, flat plate, perforated plate, and comprehensive and computerized plates, etc.

According to the production techniques:

Toppan prints can be divided into: wood face woodcut, wood mouth woodcut, watermark woodcut, oil print woodcut

Intaglio prints can be divided into: intaglio engraving, corrosion edition, Meiluoting edition It is a kind of new technique of printmaking creation that appeared in Simao area of Yunnan Province of China in the 1980s, which breaks through the traditional overlay woodcut creation of the production procedures and aesthetic concepts. It focuses all the color plates of a painting on one plate, and adopts the creation method of decreasing the number of plates while engraving and printing to complete the work, so it can also be called the "Reduction of Plate Method". Because the process of engraving and printing with this method is a natural process of destroying the plate, which cannot be reversed, and the original plate can no longer be printed after the completion of the work, it is usually called "out-of-print" oil-on-oil overprinting woodblock prints, which is different from the traditional overprinting method of dividing the plate. The means of expression of this technique is fundamentally different from that of the traditional multi-plate overprinting technique, which allows the artist to play freely in the printmaking "painting" with a maximum degree of freedom.

The so-called extinct edition is not the destruction of the plate after the completion of the work to get this name, it is the first version of the carving, printing, and then the second version of the creation of the first version of the shape of the destruction of the first version of the part, and so on for multiple versions of the carving, multi-version overprinting. When the last color carving and printing is finished, the work is completed, leaving the last color plate shape, the other colors that have been completed and printed in the screen plate shape, in the creation of the carving and printing process, naturally be destroyed. The works created by the extinct plate method are much thicker than the colors used in other plates when finished because of the multiple overlapping piles of colors.

Representatives: Zheng Xu, He Kun, Ma Li, Zhang Xiaochun

New Huizhou School of Printmaking - a printmaking group was formed in the Fine Arts Creation Center of the Hefei Federation of Literary and Art Crafts, where the printmaker Zhang Guolin and other members often discuss the problems that have arisen in the creation of the out-of-print woodcuts, and the topic of the out-of-print woodcuts is even more important. Printmaker Zhang Guolin and other members often discuss the problems in the creation of out-of-print woodcut prints, and more topics are the fusion and development of out-of-print woodcut prints and Anhui ancient woodcut prints. They were most interested in the two main features of "New Anhui Printmaking": the application of Chinese painting lines and modeling, and the use of colors with reference to ancient wall paintings and the hues and textures of the three Huizhou carvings. (China) Luo Jianzhao, "Wind and Clouds at the Peak of the Mountain," uses other materials as plates to carve letterpress prints, and its basic method is the same as that of woodcuts, except that chisels are used as auxiliary tools for carving stones and bricks, and watermarking can not be used for any other materials except woodblocks.

Gaozhou woodblock prints, a long history. Gaozhou woodblock prints are simple and delicate, the material is mostly used "branches of pine boards", monochrome and sets of colors. Ming Dynasty, there are folk artists carving and printing red paper and ink prints of the New Year's paintings, the early Republic of China, some authors began to publish their works in newspapers and magazines, and gradually popularized after liberation. The theme is mostly carp leap dragon gate, fortune and longevity stars, Tian Ji send son, the god of the door and the runic symbols and so on.

Ming Dynasty, there are folk woodblock prints

Gaozhou prints can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, there are folk woodblock artists carving red paper and ink prints of the New Year's Eve. Modern mass prints began to rise in the Anti-Japanese War period, the earliest prints were created by Huang Wenshan, Gaozhou scenic spots as the theme of the "stone boat Danzao", published in the early 1942 "Gaozhou Republican Daily". Huang Wenshan was the editor of the newspaper, and the anti-war prints he successively published in the newspaper influenced and guided a group of art-loving progressive young people in Gaozhou, such as Cui Guanying, Mo Lun and Liang Deyu, to study and create prints.

In the early fifties, the creation of mass prints in Gaozhou developed rapidly, and a group of art educators such as Cui Guanzhang, Zhang Zongjun, and Lu Xilin successively created a batch of prints reflecting the construction of the socialist revolution and overflowing with the rich flavor of life and spirit of the times. Under their influence, the mass printmaking activities were enlivened. Not only young intellectuals, but also workers and peasants joined the ranks of printmaking. It can be seen that there is a certain historical accumulation of farmers' printmaking in Gaozhou.

The original material for printmaking was mostly pine wood, but after the 20th century, artists reformed the material by adopting three-plywood and five-plywood as carving boards.

The late 1950s and early 1960s of the twentieth century was the heyday of Gaozhou farmers' printmaking, and its unique artistic style and creative features had shocked the national art world, and those simple and childish woodblock prints used by the peasants to express their true feelings, depict the scenes of the good harvest, and glorify the motherland and the new life were exhibited at home and abroad, and published in collections, and became famous, which made Gaozhou, an ancient city with a profound humanistic history, once known as the "city of the people", and the city of "the people".

Representative works include "Red Mountain", "Bamboo Country", "Adding Flowers", "Plowing Road", etc. The prints have aesthetic function and artistic and folkloric function. It has aesthetic function and research value of art and folklore. Representative authors include Lu Xilin and Zhang Zongjun. Gravure is the opposite of letterpress, in that concave lines are engraved on the plane of the plate, and when ink is rolled on, an image of white lines on a black ground is printed. The polished metal plate does not absorb ink. Ink for copperplate prints can be gently buffed with a cloth, but if the plate is marked by engraving, the ink will remain there. Modern intaglio prints of the plate material, mainly copper and zinc, but also sometimes with iron or steel, its engraving methods are:

1) line engraving method, one of the oldest intaglio engraving method, with a solid sharp knife, in the copper plate surface engraving line. The engraved lines are bright and sharp. The plate can be carved very delicate. In the past, banknotes were engraved and printed by this method, and some stamps are still engraved by this method.

Intaglio prints: (Germany) Kohler Huizhi "mother's love"

② dry engraving method, the needle directly engraved copper plate, engraved line and line engraving method is different. The tip of the needle only carve through the plate, leaving the lines next to the copper splinter, so in the plate on the ink, copper shavings also contained within the ink, printed with a fuzzy line along the light ink, the visual effect is soft and beautiful.

3 corrosion method, in copper, zinc, steel and other materials that can be corroded by the acid on the page coated with preservatives, preservatives are the main components of asphalt, rosin and beeswax. Then use a needle to carve an image on it, the needle to the place, the preservative was scraped off, exposing the layout, and finally immersed it in a nitric acid solution, the exposed part will be corroded. Due to the length of corrosion and the concentration of nitric acid solution is different, corrosion out of the line has the depth of the thickness of the difference. Corrosion prints are generally many times layered corrosion, so the color tone is very rich, the level is very clear, is the most commonly used intaglio printmaking method.

④Merzotine, the manufacture of merzotine plate shall use rocking chisel. This is a sharp, dense teeth of the round mouth steel chisel, held in the hand shaking it, the layout of the full stabbing, full of stains. The rolled ink is printed in a velvety black color. Then on top of a scraper to scrape the stabbed (i.e., full of copper splinters) layout, light scraping dark gray, heavy scraping light gray, do not scrape all black, repeatedly scrape the light is white.

5 relief method, so that part of the layout of deep corrosion, and corrosion of the area to be larger, but not on the top of the ink roll directly to the gravure machine embossing, the paper surface shows relief colorless pattern. This method is generally only suitable for local use.

6 fly dust method, fly dust corrosion used to cause various shades of gray surface. First to build a good dust box, box equipped with a hand-operated fan, and then the polished copper plate in the box. The box is stored in a large amount of rosin powder, when the box is closed and the fan is cranked, rosin powder will be flying in the box, and slowly and evenly fall on the page. To the author that the appropriate time, will be sprinkled with rosin powder copper plate out, placed on the electric stove baking. After heat, rosin powder dissolved, aggregated into countless small points, cooling and condensed into a film. This rosin film with a copper plate immersed in nitric acid solution corrosion, printed is a piece of gray by the composition of the spots. Shades of gray, depending on the thickness of rosin powder and film thickness and corrosion time. The author will be in accordance with its artistic conception of the dust method to obtain the desired effect.

7 soft ground method, the use of asphalt, rosin, beeswax made of preservative fixed in the layout to form a layer of hard film, add an appropriate amount of mutton fat in the preservative, the film can be softened. In the layout rolled on the soft ground, covered with a piece of paper, with a pencil on the back of the paper drawing, drawing, uncovering the paper, there is a pen road where the soft ground suction, the plate will reveal the copper surface, the nature of the line is exactly the same as the pencil drawing. Can also be used in kind, such as textiles, netting, leaves, paper balls, lines, etc. embossed in the soft ground above, after corrosion will be able to transfer the image of the physical object to the paper.

⑧ photographic method, the first photographic solution dissolved into the preservative, coated in the layout, and then take the black and white film positive, tightly attached to the layout, and then let it in the strong light under the exposure, and then rinsed in a special solution. The part of the ground that is covered by the black of the film gradually dissolves, exposing the plate, while the light-sensitive part is reinforced and traced on the plate, and then the normal corrosion can be carried out. Nitric acid solution can only corrode the place where the plate is exposed, into shades of black, leaving the place where the ground corrosion is not, is white, photographs will be revealed.

9 color method, in several pieces of the same size as the copper plate above, with dust corrosion method into several color plates. Printmakers selected according to plan to print that color plate first, after printing that color plate. Put the plate on the machine imprinting, first a thick paper pad in the copper plate underneath, and stick the paper on the machine, after printing, carefully remove the copper plate, the pad of paper remains on the machine without moving. At this time in the pad paper can be clearly seen above the first impression of the traces left behind, and then carefully color the second plate, embedded in the traces. At this time, the first printed on the edge of the paper is still pressed under the upper cylinder of the printing press, only to uncover the part of the cylinder away from it. Then will be printed on the first version of the paper carefully put down, overlay on the second plate, shaking the cylinder, will be able to accurately overprint on the second version. The rest of the plates are the same. Mainly lithographs. Lithography was introduced to China in the middle of the 19th century, when it was only used to replace woodcutting for book printing. The production method of lithography is relatively simple. The lithograph used is a kind of pure and fine limestone, with countless capillaries, so it has water absorption. Using the reason that oil and water repel each other, use the oil crayon to draw on the lithographic plate surface, after the drawing is fixed, use a rag to wet the plate, draw on the crayon's place to resist the water and can absorb the ink, use the ink to roll on the ink, so that there is a drawing of the place is full of ink color, it can be printed on the paper to draw. The finished lithograph can be polished and reused. There are two ways to grind the plate: one is to use the stone with water grinding, so that the plate is smooth as a mirror, called the mirror version. A kind of diamond grinding, so that the layout of rough, such as drawing paper, known as rough version. Because of the author's requirements are different, you can choose different thicknesses of diamond grinding out different thicknesses of the layout of the application. Generally, the general-purpose No. 320 emery is the finest, and No. 80 is the coarsest. There are three kinds of plate making method:

① Medicine ink stick painting method, medicine ink stick is suitable for painting on the coarse surface of the lithographic plate, can also be used in glass, metal, ceramics on the drawing paper special aluminum pen to replace the medicine ink stick. When used completely and in the same way as the drawing on paper.

② brush painting method, the ink stick will be changed into ink dissolved in water, with a brush dipped in the mirror version of the painting, but also exactly the same as in the paper painting.

③ rewriting method, prepare a special rewriting paper, ink stick or brush dipped in medicine ink painting on it, and then counterpaste on the lithographic surface, water to dissolve the mucous membrane on the rewriting paper, so that the paintings adhere to the lithographic plate will be. Lithographs of various systems practices, after the painting should be corroded by dilute nitric acid and glue sealing, so that the ink is fixed on the plate. Printing first wipe wet plate, and then rolled on the ink, and then covered with paper, through the lithographic printing machine. Overprinting lithographs are marked on the plate and overprinted separately, plate by plate. In the paper plate or tin will be a number carved through, pressed on the surface of the box, and then in the back of the color brush, the number can be printed on. This is the hole plate. The universal transcription printing press is also a perforated plate. Prints on the hole plate is mainly screen prints. The material of silk screen prints is mainly nylon mesh yarn. Originally, silk was used, hence the name silk screen. There are three kinds of production method:

①Cutting and engraving method, the first paper or plastic as a carrier, and then coated with glue, repeatedly coated with 4 to 5 layers, after drying, hard according to the drawing of the carving of this layer of adhesive film, completed, tightly in the screen on the surface of the bearing, with an iron pad cloth in the screen scratching the surface of the ironing a little bit, so that the adhesive film is softened and adhered to the screen, uncovered for a good carrier of paper or plastic, a hole version will remain on the screen. Cutting and engraving method can not be carved too fine, but the flavor of paper cutting and woodcutting, often used by printmakers.

② tracing method, with gum arabic liquid in the screen will be scraped on the surface of the painting, to be dry, coated with shellac, and then wash the screen with warm water. Gum arabic is dissolved, where the screen will be transparent. Can also use stone printing ink stick instead of gum arabic liquid painting, coated with gum, with gasoline to wash the screen.

③Photoreceptor method, the photoreceptor liquid coated on the screen, in the darkroom after drying, the drawing of the drawing tightly on the screen below, moved to the exposure stage exposure,

After that after rinsing that is completed. Deng Yaoming's "Golden Pond Series" Composite prints are made in two ways, one is to combine various natural or artificial materials on a layout, with concave and convex shapes on the pattern, and with concave and convex there is modeling. Then a layer of lacquer film is applied to the plate, and the plate coated with the lacquer film can be used for printing, as long as the ink is applied to it and the ink is wiped off at the raised area with a soft cloth, while the ink remains at the concave area, and the water-soaked paper is then put on the plate and printed with an etching printing machine, and the printed work is the work of integrated printmaking. The English name is: "Collagraph".

Another way is to synthesize the different techniques of copperplate, woodblock, lithography, and silkscreen into one work, also called a composite print. Original prints are produced in limited quantities by using ultra-high-precision (billion-pixel) stereoscopic scanning equipment to reproduce the original, and then microblasted onto the same material as the original (such as rice paper, silk, canvas, etc.) under the authorization and supervision of the museum, the artist himself, or the artist's children.

The first definition: an original print is a limited production made by using ultra-high-precision (megapixel) stereoscopic scanning equipment to reproduce the original work, and then microblasting it on the same material as the original work (such as rice paper, silk, canvas, etc.) under the authorization and supervision of the museum, the artist himself, or the children of the artist. Because the quality and details of the original prints are 100% faithful to the original, and there is no difference from the original in terms of visual effect, they are widely displayed in the world's major museums in place of the original.

The second definition: is a copy of the original. Relying on modern high-tech more than one billion pixels of three-dimensional scanner, in the case of museums and artists authorized to supervise the scanning of the original work, after the microblasted computer output to reproduce a high degree of simulation of the original work. Its most important feature is that it is 100% faithful to the original work of art, reproducing the work of art itself according to the ratio of 1:1 without any difference. For the sake of protecting works of art (works of art due to historical reasons do not require a specific conservation environment), most of today's original works of art are stored in the basement, the world's four major museums, such as the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Russia, Emitage Museum, and so on, the daily exhibition has been used in the original prints instead of the original works of art.

Original prints are traditionally an offshoot of digital prints, but offer higher reproduction requirements and work licensing restrictions than traditional digital prints.

Representative organization: Hunan Tianhe Digital Art Center Original Prints Gallery.